Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in a black velvet cloak and white lace collar and cuffs

Rembrandt · PD

Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in a black velvet cloak and white lace collar and cuffs


Details

Artist
Anonymous
Year
1635
Medium
oil paint
Type
painting
Dimensions
94.5 × 73.5 cm

The story

This one is a genuine unsolved argument. In December 2016 it sold at Christie's in London as circle of Rembrandt for about 137,000 pounds, the sort of price a competent imitator commands. The Amsterdam dealer who bought it, Jan Six, was struck by the catalogue's own hesitation: it dated the picture to the mid-1630s, when the young Rembrandt had no circle of imitators yet to speak of. He argued it was the master himself, and pointed to the fine lace collar and cuffs, painted much like those in accepted Rembrandts of 1635. Roughly a dozen specialists have agreed with him. Others have not, and the work has still not been formally catalogued as a Rembrandt, which is why it hangs here under no name at all.

Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in a black velvet cloak and white lace collar and cuffs — Anonymous — MuseScope